When it comes to warming up an outdoor gathering, it’s tough to beat a campfire. We gather in a circle around it while its light and warmth blankets us in comfort and security. Who hasn’t gotten lost staring into the dancing flicker of a wood fire’s flame? No stranger to lighting up backyards with torches, TIKI wanted to parlay their experience into a new area: the widely popular backyard fire pit.
TIKI was introducing a premium fire pit – costing upwards of $350. TIKI’s fresh take on the fire pit was beautifully designed and full of consumer-friendly features, including ready-to-light wood packs – a design that specifically appealed to a younger, new homeowner demographic. But outdated perceptions linking TIKI with thatch torches and Polynesian design would make connecting with a younger homeowner willing to buy a premium fire pit direct no easy task.
To get this younger homeowner to spend that kind of money, we couldn’t just focus on the attributes of the fire pit. We needed to convey something much bigger— the magical, transformative power of fire.
A campfire’s warmth and glow deepens the connections people make by actually, physically, slowing down those gathered around it. Science shows that we experience blood pressure decreases with prolonged exposure to fire. Hearth and campfires induce relaxation as part of a multisensory, absorptive, and social experience.
We knew people desperately craved moments of connection. And this need was exacerbated by the COVID-19 crisis. With the onset of social distancing, the backyard had elevated to a place of increased social importance. It only made sense that the experience around the fire pit should be elevated as well. And TIKI Brand had the product to deliver that.
To convey our message, we partnered Zachary Levi, star of Shazam and The Marvelous Mrs. Mazel. Zach is personally passionate about creating valuable connections with people and the environment, demonstrated by the fact that he moved from LA to a ranch in Austin, Texas to create Wyldwood, a place of community, creativity, culture, and connection. This space served as the perfect backdrop to show our target how the TIKI Brand can transform the fleeting minutes people have into lasting moments of deep connection.
With Zachary, we created a social content series that encouraged our target to pause, put down life’s distractions and welcome the calm and comfort that comes while sitting in your backyard and staring deep into a flame. The content was powerful and poignant. And it certainly ignited sales.
TIKI exceeded their annual sales goal 4 months ahead of schedule. By the end of the active campaign period, Tiki Brand fire pit sales were 69% above goal and the waiting list for a TIKI fire pit had over 1,700 people on it.
And we did it all by showing how the product brought ambiance to our target’s life, not merely their patio.
